Never had this much fun playing golf:)

Yiiha!

Back with some more serious golf sometime soon:)

Just experienced what being overtrained feels like. I tried all I could in the gym yesterday but couldn’t even sniff my normal weights. I really needed a day of rest, I have needed it for a long time. I easliy get addicted to training, especially the gym training so I’ve been going too many days in row. But today, finally, I did NOTHING. It was a great feeing and such a nice day! No plans and I just did whatever I felt like. A nice change. I love training more than anything but sometimes a day off can be super to recharge your batteries and get ready for better and harder training.

Already looking forward to tomorrow’s training and trying to keep good quality throughout the day. We’ll see how that goes!

Alex

9 hours a day indoors = Kotte

Just got great news. I got an invitation to play in the ”Royal Trophy”. I’m so excited!!! It’s a team event between Europe and Asia. Heard that Stenson, Karlson and Kaymer are also playing. Don’t know the whole team yet. But, it’s awesome to be on the same team as those guys. The tournament dates are the 8th-10th of January in Bangkok. 

Heading over to Thailand soon to get some good practice. Colin Montgomerie is the captain. I’m nervous.

Back soon.

Answered some of your questions and added some more pics from today.

Best loft and postition I’ve been in. Very very happy!!!

Q. Great to hear that you are so satisfied with your camp in Dubai!

How are the results from the gym training and eating coming? Getting stronger is great of course but are you gaining any nice muscle mass to put behind the drives next year?

What is your weight now compared to say a year ago?

A. My weight has dropped from 81 kilos to 74, but my strength and flexibility had improved massively. In June, I did 8 chin-ups, now I do 19. Have the same kind of improvement for all exercises. I think I dropped about 10-11 kilos of fat and gained some muscles. That´s what I hope at least. 

Q. How does that work out for you, practising golf after a gym session? I’m usually too tired afterwards and feel like I have no control over my body. I always have to wait until the day after, but then my body has recovered and I feel great.

A. I agree with you. Sometimes I feel really tired and sometimes it’s fine. I don’t mind it when practicing after but I would never go hard in the weight room before playing a tournament round. 

Good set Kotte.

Q. Hey Alex great chin-ups 18 reps , that must be your new record , remember you couldnt get 12 out before and edfors was beating you . I want to see what you can do on the bench press . Keep up the training ..

A. Thanks Dude!!! My records is actually 19:) Yeah, 8 last summer and 12 after a little while and now 19…So happy! More happy than making birdies…Maybe not.

Q. Players usually divide themselves into those who say they play by feel and those who are more technically minded. I should imagine that to be a top 50 in the world pro like yourself both are as important… great technique providing a foundation to be able to just play by feel when it really matters.. stood on the 18th tee with just a par needed to win your first major for example! Then again, maybe the best thing to think about at a moment like that is something boring and technical ”must turn my right hip towards the target on the backswing” instead of thinking about all the ways to make bogey! You are a great young talent so when the inevitable moment comes, what will you be thinking about Alex?

A. I will hopefully just play but I will be very nervous. I love being nervous though. Maybe that’s weird but I would stop playing golf if I wasn’t. 

Q. Hi Alex,

Great blog, love it!

I have a question, when you train in the gym whats the main purpose of the exercise? Also what muscles do you focus your training on that you feel is extra important?

A. I want to feel strong in my set-up and be able to swing without any restrictions such as not strong or flexible enough. I also want to be strong enough to not get injured when practicing a lot. Back, legs, shoulders and core are the most important muscles…pretty much the whole body.  

Kotte trains with a golf ball curve.

Q. Is the americas cup katamaran boats ??

A. Alinghi’s boat is but the American’s boat is a trimaran. The boats are amazing. 

Q. Hi Alex! Nice workout video. Look forward to see the whole snatch and clean&jerk movements. One question regarding the second phase of your first excersise. I have never seen that one. I usually do a ”thruster”, a front squat combined with a press. Are 5-6 reps a set normal?

Last question is to Pierre. What do you think about Crossfit as a golf oriented workout scheme?

Thanks for an awesome blog 

//Johan

A. Yeah, the second one is a pretty ”full” exercise to get the whole body stronger. It’s fun when you get it going fast all the way up to the top. It’s hard though. Edfors does it extremely well! We do 6 reps in the first set and then we go down to 3 reps and increase the weight. I think Pierre would like the cross-fit training. We usually have a little rest in between each set to have top quality each set. I don’t know exactly how cross fit training works but I think it’s less rest in between sets.

Sweet smelling gym…NOT. 

Q. What information does the Swingyde give a world-class guy like you? I can understand it gives us hackers a feel for maintaining the upper hand radial deviation in the downswing… Perhaps a feel for the correct direction of the wristcxxx in the backswing? Over the ”anatomical snuffbox)”. It seems you and Pete C want the upper hand fully cxxxxed rather early in the BS, before the upper arm is level to the ground (before P3, in Morad terms)

A. I use the swing guide to set the wrist correct in the backswing. I have a tendency to decrease the loft in the backswing so it’s a great tool for me. You need to be careful when using it so you know exactly where to put it. I put it just left of center of shaft. I think it doesn’t matter much when you set the wrists in the full swing. It’s more important when pitching. I try to have a little later wristaction then. 

Back soon!

Great day…wow…took longer to get the snow of the car than to drive to the gym.

Back to the roots. This is where I spent a lot of time as a kid. Huge sports complex.

The boys. Kevin came straight from the lumber yard.

Warm here. Feel the connection in the swing! The ”Swinggyde” is my saviour! Feels so good hitting with it. I get so much more square at impact. I can feel my motivation for indoor practice going up. But soon I need to see the green grass. 

Bye:)

So another training camp is over and I feel more pleased than ever before. I concentrated on only two things, strength- and technique training, and they both went well. It was nice only focusing on these two things because I had 100% concentration and my mind didn’t wander away to something else while training. Usually when I go on camps I try to do so much work and in the end I end up ahcieving way less than planned. My goals for the weeks were:

1. Get into running again after my knee injury I got during the first part of the year. Have only been on the bike since then because I didn’t want the knee to get inflamed again during the season. I achieved that goal and the knee feels great. 

2. Find out exactly what I need to work on in the swing and the shortgame. Me and Mike talked a lot about it while training and discussed different feelings and techniques for hitting each shot and came up with what works for me. Now, I just have to train hard at these things.

3. Train 10 sessions in the gym with Pierre- and I did.

4. Watch Team Alinghi train and see if I could learn some from how they went about things. It was very impressive to watch how specific they were about their equipment and their training. It felt like I didn’t take my job half as serious as they did. I guess it’s a different thing playing golf as an individual but it made me focus more and be more specific straight after visiting them. 

There is one thing I could have done a better this camp though… 

– Sleep more to have more energy. Two sessions in the gym and 3 hours of superviced golf training in one day takes a lot of energy and going to bed earlier would have helped a lot.

So, now its back to training again inside before heading over to warmer climates soon to get into the playing mode. Two more weeks of pure basic training will do a lot of good before heading out on the golf course. At least I think so. I hope my plan works.

Alex

I understand that some of you guys are going away for training camps yourselves and wondered how my camps look like. In this camp we have down here we focus on golf technique and strength- and cardio training. I’m going to try to describe the work we have done. Both my stretngth coach Pierre and my swing coach Mike ahve been here and it has been great.

Monday-flying all day

Tuesday– visiting the Alinghi training camp. 1 hour olympic lifting training with stretch/flexibility work. 9 holes Al Hamra Course. 1,5 hour technique training on the range. 

Wednesday-1 hour technique training on the range. 18 holes Earth Course. 1 hour   stabilization training using heavy weights plus abs workout and stretching/flexibilty work.

Thursday– 30 minutes running plus 15 min abs and stretch/flexibilty work. Watching Alinghi sail all afternoon.

Friday-  30 minutes running plus abs and stretch-flexibilty work. 1,5 hours technique training on the range. 1 hour technique training shortgame. 15 min technique training putting. 1 hour olympic lifting training with abs and stretch/flexibilty work.

Saturday– 2 hours technique training on the range. 1 hour stabilization work using heavy weights plus stretch/flexibility work. 

Sunday– 30 minutes running plus stretch/flexibility work. 1,5 hour techique training. 1 hour hard stabilization workout using heavy weights including abs and stretching/flexibility work. 20 minutes indoor technique training.

Monday– 3 hours of technique training including shots, shortgame, and indoor swing work with different tools. 30 minutes bike ride with no resistance to get rid of soreness.

Tuesday– The schedule is-  30 min running plus abs and stretch/flexibility work. 3 hours shortgame/range technique training. 1 hour olympic lifting plus stretch/flexibiltiy work. Flying home.

It may sound like we haven’t practiced much golf and that’s true. No putting for example except for when playing the two rounds. I have tried to plan this winter break so that I will do a lot of basic training, such as the training described above now early in the break and focus more and more on golf as closer I get to the tournaments. 

I will have 2 more weeks of extra hard strength- and technique training. Then, after new years, focus will be more on golf and I will play a lot and do a lot more putting. I will keep going almost as hard in th gym but the camps will more look like tournament weeks so I can get into the right mode. My first tournament is the 21st of January in Abu Dhabi.

Right now I’m trying to get out of bed and I feel very tired after all these workouts. I have two more workouts to go and I’m sure I will sleep well on the flight home:)

Alex

A usual day for us here in Dubai except for the rain…

Hitting the bed after a long day. Mike Walker, my coach Pete Cowen’s assistant, came down here yesterday and we had a nice session today. I train mostly with Pete but also a lot with Mike. I think they both are great coaches!

When me and Mike train we usually brainstorm for an hour trying to understand each others views on what needs to be done in my swing. Today, the brainstorming went on for about 2,5 hours. It will probably continue tomorrow as well, but at least we got some stuff that we both agree on. 

I have a clear picture in my head of how I want my swing to look and function. Mike has a similar picture in mind but we have to go through a lot of different feelings and exercises to find the one that will improve my swing the most. When you play every day and you play tough courses like I do, you have to be comfortable with your swing. I know exactly what I want to feel in my swing so it’s really important for me and my coach to discuss that and then come up with a way to improve my swing. It’s not good if your coach just tells you something you need to change and you don’t know how that will affect your shots. The more you are involved in the changes the better it is.

Learn a lot about technique, and learn EVERYTHING about your own technique.

Alex